A poem by Ummidia Quadratilla, on learning that the family’s seaside villa in Pompeii (now known as the Villa of the Mysteries) has been destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, Translated by Freddie Omm:
Sweet home, bodies loved
Before the ash and pumice storm:
Thoughts, loves, lives, buried
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Words too crushed to speak
My loss through lasting love now
Silence covers all—
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Busts, scrolls in libraries,
(Like grapes left liquid in the press)
Some burned, crushed, some saved:
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We can only wait
For the centuries to come
To uncover us
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